S.J. looks to set up shop in Manteca

STOCKTON - As the county seat, Stockton's city center is home to a cluster of buildings and offices where thousands of residents come to get building permits, apply for benefits or take care of a host of errands that they might need to do when taking care of their business with San Joaquin County government.

STOCKTON - As the county seat, Stockton's city center is home to a cluster of buildings and offices where thousands of residents come to get building permits, apply for benefits or take care of a host of errands that they might need to do when taking care of their business with San Joaquin County government.

But plans to build a satellite center in Manteca are beginning to come into tighter focus as the county looks ahead for the decades to come when the population growth is expected to continue to be fastest in the southern reaches of the county.

"You want to have the services where the people are," General Services Director Rob Lim said. The new south county government center along Highway 120 in Manteca is in the latest update of a master plan that lays out where the government agency will need to grow to keep providing services to a growing population. "I think it's a good step the county has taken to help plan for the future, instead of shooting from the hip or getting caught unaware."

It estimates the cost of the projects to be about $185.5 million. The county Board of Supervisors signed off on the plan last month, but that didn't require the commitment of dollars to get the projects started.

To balance the budget during the aftermath of the mortgage-market collapse and global financial crisis in the latter part of the past decade, the county dipped into its reserves as well as money used to pay for construction projects.

About $72 million came from money the county had been planning to use on construction and other capital spending. The more-pressing budget needs meant maintenance of existing facilities had been put off until later, too.

There will be more discussion of what the county will spend its capital dollars on in budget hearings later this year, County Administrator Monica Nino said. "There are probably more immediate needs that this board would want to consider before allocating dollars ... towards these new improvements," she said during a recent meeting where the board discussed the master plan.

"I think it's a good idea to do the planning and get an idea of the big picture," Supervisor Larry Ruhstaller said.

Growth expectations have been lowered since the last time the county updated its master plan in 2008. The latest update began after the county entered into a consulting agreement with Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. in 2012.

The county is still expecting to grow from the 685,000 people counted during the 2010 U.S. census. In 2035, the county's population is projected to be about 1 million people, with much of the growth happening in the southern part of the county, in Manteca and Tracy, according to the plan. Over the same period of time, Manteca is projected to grow from 67,000 to 117,000 and Tracy to grow from 82,000 to 131,000.

A south county government center has been a long-talked-about goal by county officials. Last year, the county struck a deal with Manteca to pay $1 to buy 10 acres near Airport Way and Highway 120 to be used for the government center. Of three buildings that are part of the county's plan, the first building would be 80,000 square feet and include social services from the Human Services Agency and a clinic and other services from Health Care Services and San Joaquin General Hospital. The next building would be 40,000 square feet and include other county departments, like Probation, Community Development and the Agricultural Commissioner's Office. A rough timeline has the first building finished in 2023 and the second in 2033.

Together, the estimated cost of the two buildings is $70 million.

Other facilities in the master plan:

» Public Health, with laboratory, on the northeast corner of Wilson Way and Hazelton Avenue in Stockton. A $51 million project that could be finished in 2021, it is the highest priority in the plan.

» "Short Stop" permit center, on the same corner as the new Public Health project; $50 million and 2025.

» Relocating the county corporation yard and other changes to existing county location south of Hazelton Ave.; $14.5 million and 2029.

Not included in the master plan is what will happen when the state finishes building a new courthouse in Hunter Square Plaza in downtown Stockton, which could be as early as 2016. County government owns the building where the court is currently located, along with other county departments. Previous county plans called for the demolition of the San Joaquin County Courthouse building, replacing it with a plaza with underground parking garage.

That site will be evaluated in a subsequent master plan update, according to the plan update approved last month.

Contact reporter Zachary K. Johnson at (209) 546-8258 or zjohnson@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/johnsonblog and on Twitter @zacharykjohnson.